California Files Lawsuit Against Amazon Alleging Antitrust Violations

California sued Amazon.com. Inc., the state attorney general said, alleging the online retail giant’s contracts with third-party sellers and wholesalers inflate prices, stifle competition and violate the state’s antitrust and unfair competition laws. Attorney General Rob Bonta announced his office had filed a lawsuit in San Francisco Superior Court seeking to halt Amazon policies he said prevent merchants from offering lower prices through competitors’ websites.

Iranian State-Sponsored Hacking Group Reportedly Aims at Western Targets

Cybersecurity researchers say they've identified what's likely an Iranian state-sponsored hacking group that's targeting opponents of that country's regime including Western think tanks, researchers, journalists, government officials and members of the Iranian diaspora. In a report, researchers for the cybersecurity firm Mandiant say the advanced persistent threat group, which they refer to as "APT42," has conducted information gathering and surveillance operations going back to at least 2015.

  • Read the article: CNET

'Criminal' Cyberattack Disables Computer Systems at Los Angeles Schools

The massive cyberattack that disabled computer systems across the Los Angeles Unified School District school over the weekend is “criminal in nature,” but most all online services — including key emergency systems — were operating safely, no ransom demands were made and schools opened with only a few glitches, Supt. Alberto Carvalho said. Besides taking the district’s website offline, the attack resulted in staff and students losing access to email.

Brazil Fines Apple, Says iPhone Sales Must Include Battery Chargers

Brazil's government ordered Apple Inc. to stop selling iPhones without a battery charger in the country, claiming that the company provides an incomplete product to consumers. The Justice Ministry fined Apple 12.275 million reais ($2.38 million) and ordered the cancellation of the sale of the iPhone 12 and newer models, in addition to suspending the sale of any iPhone model that does not come with a power charger.

Cloudflare Drops Support for Kiwi Farms Message Board, Citing 'Imminent Threats'

Cloudflare, a major American internet services company, pulled its support for Kiwi Farms, a controversial online message board, citing “imminent threats to human life.” The move temporarily forced Kiwi Farms offline. Cloudflare’s decision came as Kiwi Farms was linked to a campaign of harassment and violent threats targeting Clara Sorrenti, a Canadian trans woman who is a streamer on Twitch, a platform popular among video gamers.

  • Read the article: CNN

Court Says Meta Violated Washington State's Campaign-Ad Transparency Law

Meta, Facebook’s parent company, repeatedly and intentionally violated Washington campaign-ad transparency law and must pay penalties yet to be determined, a judge ruled. The court also denied Meta’s attempt to invalidate Washington’s decades-old transparency law, according to Attorney General Bob Ferguson, whose office has repeatedly sued Meta over its failure to abide by the law.

Google, YouTube Disclose Plans to Limit Misinformation in Midterm Elections

Google and its video sharing app YouTube outlined plans for handling the 2022 U.S. midterm elections, highlighting tools at its disposal to limit the effort to limit the spread of political misinformation. When users search for election content on either Google or YouTube, recommendation systems are in place to highlight journalism or video content from authoritative national and local news sources such as The Wall Street Journal, Univision, PBS NewsHour and local ABC, CBS and NBC affiliates.

Montenegro Blames 'Cuba Ransomware' Group for Infrastructure Attacks

Montenegro blamed a criminal group called Cuba ransomware for cyber attacks that have hit its government digital infrastructure since last week, described by officials as unprecedented. Public Administration Minister Maras Dukaj told state television the group had created a special virus for the attack called Zerodate, with 150 work stations in 10 state institutions becoming infected.

App Developer Settles Lawsuit with Apple Over App Store Rejection

An app developer’s lawsuit over App Store rejections, scams and fraud has ended in a settlement agreement after court filings show a request to dismiss the suit earlier this summer. The plaintiff, app developer and former Pinterest engineer Kosta Eleftheriou, made a name for himself in recent months calling out some of the most egregious App Store scams.

California Lawmakers Approve 'Age-Appropriate Design Code Act'

California state lawmakers passed a major children’s online safety measure that would require digital platforms to vet whether new products may pose harm to kids and teens before rolling them out and to offer privacy guardrails to younger users by default. Children’s safety advocates say the legislation, the California Age-Appropriate Design Code Act, would make the state a national leader in setting protections for kids and teens online.

Biden Administration Imposes New Restrictions on Chip Sales to Russia, China

The Biden administration has imposed new restrictions on sales of some sophisticated computer chips to China and Russia, the U.S. government’s latest attempt to use semiconductors as a tool to hobble rivals’ advances in fields such as high-performance computing and artificial intelligence. The new limits affect high-end models of chips known as graphics processing units, or GPUs, which are sold by the Silicon Valley companies Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices.

UK Plans Enforcement Rules to Ensure Porn Sites Blocked from Children

The UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office has pledged to crack down on porn sites and other adult-only services to ensure they are taking steps, such as verifying users’ ages, to prevent children’s access, the regulator said. The new enforcement plans are a reversal for the ICO, which had previously maintained that services aimed at adults weren’t subject to the Children’s Code or Age Appropriate Design Code, a set of rules that guide how the UK Data Protection Act should be applied to digital services for children.

Court Rules for Apple, HTC, ZTE in Dispute Over Former Panasonic Patents

A U.S. appeals court affirmed a win for Apple Inc., HTC Corp. and ZTE Corp. against allegations that imports of their devices infringe wireless-technology patents. The companies' smartphones, smart watches, tablets and other LTE-capable devices do not violate INVT SPE LLC's rights in two patents originally owned by Panasonic, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit said.

Justice Department Lawyers Drafting Antitrust Complaint Against Apple

Justice Department lawyers are in the early stages of drafting a potential antitrust complaint against Apple, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter — a sign that a long-running investigation may be nearing a decision point and a suit could be coming soon. Various groups of prosecutors inside DOJ are assembling the pieces for a potential lawsuit, the individual said, adding that the department’s antitrust division hopes to file suit by the end of the year.

The GigaLaw Firm helps companies of all sizes protect their brands online, using domain name dispute policies – such as the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) – and other legal tools available to copyright and trademark owners on the Internet.